Revolution

This week we have consolidated our knowledge of using our Individual Learning Plans.  We spent 20 minutes or so on Friday setting up our timetable for this week.  Adding things into the timetables in order of importance.  ESOL classes have a huge impact on how much time they have in the classroom, so we had to do a bit of juggling!

The best thing for me about the ILPs is that I can fit the reading / maths / writing groups in around ESOL and I don't have to necessarily fit all the maths groups into the morning session because that is 'maths time'!  This means that the children all get the necessary instruction every day, rather than a reduced amount due to being out of the class.

I did have two students who found it difficult to work their way through their timetable last week and didn't complete the necessary work.  This week we have made sure that all the students have time allotted to maths, reading, writing, editing (I have added editing in as a separate session to encourage the children to re-read and re-work their stories), handwriting, Jolly Phonics, reading to a buddy.  In the spaces they have left they have filled in the sessions with Read to Self, Listen to Reading and Word Work.  I found last week that I needed to co-ordinate Read with a Buddy because I had odd children saying, "I want to read to a buddy", but no-one else had timetabled it at that time.  So, on Friday I asked them to find two buddies and book in a session each in a time where they were both free.  This means that each child will do Read to a Buddy at least twice this week.  If they are lucky or finish something early, then they will be able to do extra sessions!

This week we are also in various stages of completion for Speeches.  I have asked the children to be ready to present their speeches on Friday this week.  I am planning to video the presentations, put them on our wiki pages and get children to respond positively and constructively to their friends.  I am hoping this feedback will assist the children to improve their speeches and when the top three children get through to the finals that their performance will be enhanced due to the feedback and also, due to them being able to see their own performance.  At the moment I am having technical issues with Voicethread - so fingers crossed that this all works properly!

I was very interested in a poll I did via Edmodo.  I asked the children to vote on their favourite way to share information with their families on our wikis.  I expected the gimmicky Vokis or Fotobabbles to win hands down, but the majority vote went to simply writing on the wiki!!  Good to know!

We also have two new members to our class this week.  Miss Bohling has joined us for 6 weeks (2 this term and 4 next term) as a Student Teacher.  She is a fabulous asset for our class!  The way she communicates with the children is delightful and she has already taken over two maths groups and two reading groups (having been here for 2 days!!)  It is also great to have a spare pair of hands because our other new member is a new student from Korea.  She has very little English, so it is great for us both to be able to spend some quality time with her, getting her sorted and into routines.  Miss Bohling has found some great apps for the iPads, which will help to practise letter and small word sounds.

This new set of eyes has also been giving feedback on what she is seeing the children achieve and it has been very gratifying to hear how impressed she is with the students' focus and independence - Keep it up Room 17!!